Palestinians fired mortars shells on Israeli targets in the Gaza Strip early Wednesday, only hours after Israeli forces pulled out of autonomous areas they seized in a move blasted by the United States as an "excessive" over-reaction.
The army said six shells were fired in the north and south of the Gaza Strip without claiming any victims or causing damage. Previous attacks have triggered heavy ripostes by Israel in the escalating wave of violence in the region.
Israeli forces withdrew late Tuesday from an area in the northern Gaza Strip it had retaken during a fierce land, ground and sea assault on the area over Monday night in retaliation for a mortar attack on a nearby Israeli town.
Palestinian security officials reported that half a dozen troop transporters and special lorries transporting tanks were seen withdrawing from the area late Tuesday night and later confirmed that the pullout was complete.
"After completing their missions, the army are returning from the Gaza Strip to their previous positions," the army said in a statement announcing the withdrawal.
"The IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) views the Palestinian Authority directly responsible for all occurrences within its territory, including all types of terror, especially shooting at settlements, Israeli civilians and soldiers."
For the first time since the Palestinians were granted limited self-rule in 1994, the Israeli army on Monday night seized land around Beit Hanun near the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel, a move that violates peace agreements.
The action followed a mortar attack on the southern Israeli town of Sderot, which lies just a few kilometres (miles) from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's desert ranch.
The pullout after the reoccupation, which triggered angry reactions throughout the Arab world, came as a relief. The international community had feared it would cause further escalation in Middle East violence that has already claimed more than 480 lives in less than seven months.
Washington expressed pleasure at Israel's withdrawal, but US officials warned the Jewish state not to "overreact" again to Palestinian attacks.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell said Tuesday that "the hostilities last night in Gaza were precipitated by the provocative Palestinian mortar attacks on Israel. The Israeli response was excessive and disproportionate."
The pullout came even though the commander of the army's Gaza division, General Yair Naveh, had said the troops could remain in the area for "several months."
The army on Wednesday reprimanded Naveh, saying he was not speaking within his authority.
Earlier, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak had led a string of virulent Arab condemnations of Israel's incursion, saying "this policy will lead to nothing, it will have terrible repercussions and, if they believe they are going to halt the violence this way, the violence will increase everywhere".
Raanan Gissin, spokesman for Sharon, said "this operation was not aimed at reoccupying Palestinian territory but at putting an end to threats on Israeli towns."
He said the decision to withdraw was "not linked in any way to criticism voiced earlier by the (US) State Department."
However, an aide to Yasser Arafat said the Palestinian leader had sent a message to US President George Bush informing him of Israeli operations in the Palestinian territories, and Israeli radio reported that Sharon later informed the United States of his decision to pull out.
Meanwhile, violence continued to flare Tuesday in the Palestinian territories, as four Palestinians were killed by the Israeli army.
Ten-year-old Baraa Jalal al-Shaer was shot in the head on his way back from school near Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical sources said. Rami Mussa, 17, was killed by shrapnel when the Israeli army fired tank shells on the locality of El-Khader near the West Bank town of Bethlehem.
Earlier Tuesday, 15-year-old Hamza Ebeid was hit in the stomach by an Israeli bullet at the nearby Karni border crossing with Israel, medical sources said, although witnesses did not report any clashes in that area of the Gaza Strip at the time.
Israeli shelling had continued Tuesday morning after overnight raids, killing Mohammed al-Masri, a member of the Palestinian security forces, near Beit Hanun in the northern Gaza Strip, one of the areas that came under fire during the night. Palestinian hospital sources also reported eight injured following the Beit Hanun clashes.
Tuesday's deaths brought to 482 the number of people killed since the start of the Palestinian Intifada, or uprising, on September 28: 397 Palestinians, 13 Israeli Arabs, 71 other Israelis and one German -- GAZA CITY (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
